You got a little happier and also a little sadder
by Peggys Carter
Summary: Recent events have left Peggy Carter, a seventh year student at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, wonder who she might want to get to know better.


It was long past midnight and yet Peggy carter sat up in bed, wide awake in her Slytherin dormitory. She had been up for hours with her books open in front of her. But it wasn't her lessons she was studying for, she was looking at the notes she and her best friend, Angie Martinelli, had written to each other during class. There were only three days left until the winter holidays and Peggy was becoming increasingly frantic over her relationship with Angie and it was all thanks to a comment Howard had made to her during a snowball fight a couple days ago.

It had been the first snow of the season and Peggy and Angie were tired of studying so they rounded up the gang to go out for a snowball fight: Angie, Peggy, and Howard against Jarvis, Anna, and Bucky. They spent hours outside, snow flying through the air until their fingers were too stiff to make snowballs and their smiles were frozen onto their numb faces.

"We won, we won," Angie chanted as they headed back to the castle.

"That's not fair, I had snow in my eyes," Jarvis pouted.

"Doesn't matter, we still won."

"But we agreed to no aiming at the face!"

"I wasn't aiming at your face, not all of us can have the perfect aim of Gryffindor's star chaser." Angie glared at Bucky who simply shrugged. He had pelted ball after ball at the other team and almost always hit his mark.

"How come you never got hit, Pegs?" Howard whined looking from his snow covered robes to Peggy's nearly snowless ones.

"I got hit plenty," Peggy retorted. "Someone was clearly still bitter over Slytherin's last quidditch victory," she said looking over at Bucky

"You knocked out seeker out of the air!"

"Did not, he fell on his own."

"Well you did a good job at dodging the snowballs, Peg. Maybe next time you can put those skills towards dodging bludgers."

Despite being on rival teams, Peggy and Bucky rarely let quidditch interfere with their friendship. Only during games were they ever competitive with each other.

"Peggy are you sure you can't stay at Hogwarts for the holidays?" Angie chimed in, clearly tired of all the quidditch talk. She had been trying to get Peggy to stay for weeks since Peggy, Howard, and Bucky were all going home and Anna was taking Jarvis skiing, leaving Angie alone at Hogwarts.

"I'm sorry Angie, Mum and Dad were really looking forward to me being home for a bit."

Angie sighed, "I know, but it would be so much fun with just the two of us, and this is the last time you'll get to see Hogwarts at Christmas time."

"I'll send you an owl on Christmas, I promise," Peggy said.

Angie tried giving Peggy her puppy dog look, but she knew how strict Peggy's parents could be and if they wanted her home for the holidays, she was going home for the holidays.

"Edwin, why don't we go down to the kitchens and some hot chocolate?" Anna said, pulling her boyfriend towards the staircase.

"Sure, does anyone else want-" he stopped when he was the look on Anna's face. "Of course, hot chocolate sounds wonderful."

"I'm going to go change into some dry robes before dinner," Angie said as she ran off to the Hufflepuff dormitories. Leaving Peggy alone with Bucky and Howard

"I suppose we should get changed too," Peggy said as she turned toward the dungeons.

"She likes you, you know," Howard said.

"What?" Peggy stopped.

"Angie, she likes you."

"Don't be ridiculous, Howard. She's my best friend, of course she like me."

"You know what I mean, Pegs"

Peggy was silent for a moment before Bucky finally spoke up, "Steve would want you to be happy, Pegs. You can't spend your entire life mourning him."

Tears started to well up in Peggy's eyes. So many had people had said the same thing to her, but hearing Bucky, Steve's best friend, say it felt so different. "I miss him so much"

"We all do. But it's almost been a year; it's time to move on."

"We all miss him, Peggy," Howard said. "And we know what he meant to you, but you need to think about the possibility of someone else making you happy. I think if you just let Angie in she can do that for you."

Without saying a word, Peggy turned and ran straight to her dorm. She hadn't even realised how much she had been crying until she threw herself onto her bed. As she lay there trying to compose herself, she relived in her mind the day Steve had died.

It was last winter, during their sixth year. Some death eaters had gotten into the castle somehow and were attacking students. One even put Bucky under the Imperius Curse and almost made him kill Steve, but Peggy had managed to stun the death eater, effectively breaking the curse, before any real harm was done. Finally one of the death eaters cornered a group of first years and a prefect on one of the bridges. Daniel Sousa, one of Ravenclaw's prefects who was in his sixth year, only had one good leg and was caught trying to defend himself and the first years against a much more experienced wizard. Seeing it was an impossible fight for Daniel, or any of them, to win, Steve did the only thing he could think of which was to push the death eater off the bridge. But before he lost his balance, the death eater had grabbed Steve, pulling them both off the bridge. By the time Peggy arrived it was too late. Later they found the death eater's body and identified him as Red Skull, but they were never able to recover Steve's body. Howard was convinced it had fallen through the ice into the lake, but there was never any chance to search for it, though he still spent months coming up with different ways to search the lake. Peggy on the other hand had tried to go on as normally as possible, keeping her sadness bottled up inside.

Things were not easy for Peggy after Steve died. Everyone at school was afraid to talk to her because they were afraid of upsetting her. Only her closest friends tried to treat her normally.

"Hey Pegs?" Natasha Romanoff muttered from across the room.

Peggy looked up from her notes, "yes, Nat?"

"Would you mind turning off your light?"

"Of course, sorry" Peggy said, closing her book. "Nox."

"Thanks."

As Peggy lay awake in bed, she realised she was in for another sleepless night. Since Howard had made that comment to Peggy, she had become increasingly aware of Angie's actions towards her and every night she would lay in bed replaying the events of the day in her head, analysing everything to see if what Howard had said had any truth to it. Quickly Peggy had begun to realise that perhaps Howard had a point. Angie always wanted to spend time alone with Peggy and she would only share her loot from Honeydukes with Peggy. But what's more is that Peggy was beginning to question her own feelings towards Angie. She loved Steve, and she always would, but Bucky and Howard were right: she couldn't spend her entire life mourning him. She would have to move on at some point and Angie was a wonderful friend who also knew how much Steve meant to Peggy.

"Maybe I should just talk to her," Peggy thought. She decided to go for a walk around the castle to think about what she might say to Angie so she grabbed her wand and the piece of parchment she always kept under her pillow and left the dormitory.

When she finally exited the common room, she tapped the parchment with her wand, "I solemnly swear I am up to no good."

Bucky had swiped the map from Filch's office in their fourth year and it had provided them with plenty of entertainment. After Steve died, Peggy would spend many sleepless nights wandering the hallways so Bucky decided to give her the map so she could avoid professors. Once again Peggy found herself standing in the dark hallway, scanning the map for any professors who might have decided to go for a nighttime stroll. No one was out so Peggy put the map in her pocket and turned down the hall.

Unaware of where she was going, Peggy soon found herself in one of the unused hallways of the school. Students only came here if they wanted to meet privately. Peggy and Angie had hidden here once to escape Howard who had had a little too much to drink at one of the Hufflepuff parties and was trying to kiss Peggy. Peggy smiled at the memory, she and Angie had so much fun that night.

Realising she hadn't been making sure there wasn't anyone around, Peggy quickly glanced down at the map and found to her dismay that Dottie underwood was just around the corner. As a prefect, Dottie would love nothing more than to dock points from Slytherin for Peggy's carelessness. Peggy quickly slipped into the nearest classroom and waited for Dottie to pass. When she heard the footsteps fade, Peggy finally let out her breath and looked to see what room she was in. It wasn't an ordinary classroom, and there were no desks. In fact, the room was completely empty except for a mirror in the middle. Curious of the mirror, Peggy went to go look at. As she got closer, she could see there was writing on the top. It appeared to be a foreign language, but after studying it for a moment Peggy realised that "I show not your face but your heart's desire" was written backwards with its spaces rearranged. When Peggy looked in the mirror, she was surprised to see herself in what appeared to be the future. Her reflection showed a twenty-some Peggy holding a baby in her arms and beside her was another person.  
Steve.

Peggy gasped when she saw him. He was still alive and they had a family together. Peggy reached up to the stone that hung around her neck. It was a perfectly round disk that Steve had found by the lake one time and he had carved single star in the middle. When he gave it to her, he told her that the star was because she was his sunshine. When she asked him why he hadn't carved a sun and he told her that the straight lines of the star were easier to carve, but that he could try to carve a sun for her. She had told him that she was only teasing and that she loved the necklace before wrapping her arms around his neck and kissing him. She had worn the necklace everyday since then.

As Peggy studied the reflection more closely she noticed another figure. This one was very faint, but definitely there. It was the silhouette of what appeared to be a petite woman, but Peggy couldn't make out who it was. Suddenly the sound of someone trying to open the door shook Peggy from her thoughts and in a moment of panic she hid herself in the closet. Peggy could hear the person walk across the room and stop in front of the mirror. After a couple moments Peggy finally gathered enough courage to peek out. Much to her surprise, Peggy saw Angie standing in front of the mirror, hand outstretched as if she were trying to touch the reflection.

"Angie?" Peggy asked, coming out of the closet.

Angie whipped around, fists raised like she was ready to fight. "Pegs!" she exclaimed when she saw her best friend. "You scared me! I thought you were a teacher. What are you doing here?"

"I could ask you the same thing," Peggy said, stepping closer.

"I'm looking in the mirror, obviously," Angie rolled her eyes

"What is the mirror supposed to show you?" Peggy asked.

"It shows us nothing more or less than the deepest, most desperate desire of our hearts. The happiest man on earth would be able to use the Mirror of Erised like a normal mirror, that is, he would look into it and see himself exactly as he is Professor Phillips told me"

Peggy nodded, "what do you see, Angie?"

Angie paused for a moment before responding, "I see myself with someone. I have loved this person for a while now, but I don't think they feel the same way."

"What makes you think that?"

"Well I think she's still in love with someone else."

Peggy tucked Angie's hair behind her ear so she could see her face more clearly, "she?"

Angie looked away, embarrassed, "I'm sorry Peggy."

Cupping Angie's face in her hand, Peggy turned Angie's face to face her own and leaned down, pressing her lips against Angie's.

After a couple seconds Angie pulled back, "Peggy" she said, slightly surprised.

"Ohmygoodness Angie, is this not what you wanted? I'm so sorry" Peggy rushed, turning bright red.

"No no, that's not what I meant Pegs. I was talking about you, but what about Steve?"

Peggy blushed even more after her previous hasty response, "oh, I will always love Steve, I don't think that will ever change. But it's time for me to move on. We're leaving Hogwarts in a year, Angie. We are about to go into a whole new world and I want to get through this with you."

Angie smiled. "I would love to be your after-Hogwarts companion," she said before standing on her toes to kiss Peggy again.

When they finally broke apart Peggy said, "maybe I can talk to mum and dad about letting me stay for the holidays."

Angie grinned, "That would be amazing."


End file.
